he hath set up to them they are half as long in Learning for all that as if he had never given them such a help And therefore it is that we cannot leave our Learning to Posterity Because still the stop is in the Receivers incapacity And he cannot be capable of the plainest precepts but by much time and study 2. Pride maketh men hasty in concluding because they are not humbled to a just Suspicion of their own apprehensions And men stay not to prove and try things before they judge 3. Pride maketh men insensible how much they are ignorant of in all their Knowledge 4. And it causeth men to slight the Reasons and Judgments of other men by which they might learn or at least might be taught to Judge considerately and suspend their own If over-valuing a mans own apprehensions be Pride as it is then certainly Pride is one of the commonest sins in the world and particularly among men professing godliness who upon every poor surmise or report are condemning those that they do not throughly know and in every petty controversy they are all still in the right though of never so many minds III Another cause of Pretended Knowledge is the want of a truly tender Conscience Which should make men fear lest they should err lest they should deserve the curse of putting light for darkness darkness for light evil for good good for evil should make them afraid lest they should defile their minds resist the truth blaspheme God or Dishonour him by fathering Errors on him and lest they should prove snares to mens Souls and a Scandal and Trouble to the Church of God. A tender Conscience would not have espoused such opinions under a year or two or manies deliberation which an Antinomian or other Sectary will take up in a few days if they were true O saith the tender Conscience what if I should Err and prove a Snare to Souls and a Scandal and Dishonour to the Church of God c. IV. Another cause of Pretended Knowledge is a blind Zeal for Knowledge and Godliness in the General while men know not what it is that they are zealous of They think that it is a necessary part of sincerity to receive the Truth speedily without delay And therefore they take a present concluding for a true Receiving it And he that soonest taketh up that which is offered him probably as a part of Godliness is taken for the most resolved down-right convert Which is true in case of Evident Truths where it is the will that by vice suspendeth the mind But not in dark and doubtful cases V. Another cause is an inordinate trust in man When some admire the learned too much and some the Religious and some this or that particular person and therefore build too confidently on their words Some on great men some on the Multitude but most on men of fame for great Learning or great Piety A credit is to be given by every learner to his Teacher But the confounding this with oâ— Belief of God and making it a part of our Religion and not trusting man as man only that is as a fallible Wight doth cause this Vice of Pretended Knowledge to pass with millions for Divine Faith. Especially when men embody themselves into a Sect as the only Orthodox or Godly party or as the only true Church as the Papists do then it emboldeneth them to believe any thing which their Sect or Church believeth For they think that this is the Churches Faith which cannot err or is the safest And that God would not let so many good men err And thus they that should be made their Teachers and the Helpers of their Faith become the Lords of it and almost their Gods. VI. And it much increaseth this sin that men are not sufficiently acquainted with the Original and Additional Corruption of mans nature and know not how Blind all Mankind is Alas man is a dark Creature What error may he not hold What villany may he not do Yea and maintain Truly said David All men are Liars Pitifully do many expound this as an effect of his unbelief and passion because he saith I said it my haste When it is no more than Paul saith Let God be true and every man a Liar Rom. 3. And than Solomon and Isaiah say All men are Vanity And Jeremy cursed be he that trusteth in man All men are untrusty in a great degree Weak False and Bad. And his haste was either as Dr. Hammond translateth it his Flight or else that his Tryal and distress made him more passionately sensible of the Vanity or Untrustiness of man than he was at other times For Vanity and a Lie to the Hebrews were words of the same importance signifying Deceivableness and untrustiness And indeed among mankind there is so great a degree of Impotency Selfishness Timorousness Ignorance Errour and Viciousness as that few wicked men are to be believed where there is any strong Temptation to lying And the Devil is seldom unprovided of Temptations And abundance of Hypocrites are as untrusty as open wicked men And abundance of sincere Godly persons especially Women have loose Tongues and hasty passions and a stretching Conscience but specially injudicious heads so that frequently they know not truth from falshood nor have the tenderness of Conscience to be silent till they know So that if one say it another will say it till a hundred say it and then it goeth for currant truth Good-mens over-much credulity of one another hath filled the Church with Lies and Fables Many of the Papists Sâ—â—â—rstitions Purgatory praying to Saints and Angels prayâ—â— for the dead c. were bred by this credulity It is so visible in Venerable Beda Gregory the first yea before them in Sulpitius Severus of Martius Life and abundance more that to help up Christianity among the Pagans they laid hold of any old Womans or Ignorant Mans Dreams and Visions and stories of pretended Miracles Revelations that it made even Melchior Canus cry out of the shameful Ridiculous filth that hence had filled their Legends Even Baronius upon Tryal retaineth no small number of them and with his Brethren the Oratorians on their Prophesying days told them to the people I am ashamed that I recited one out of him before my Treatise of Crucifying the World though I did it not as perswading any that it was true For I quickly saw that Sophronious on whom he fathered it was none of the reporters of it that Book being spurious and none of Sophronius his work Indeed I know of such impudent false History lately Printed of matters of publick fact in these times yea divers concerning my own Words and Actions by persons that are far from Contemptible that Strangers and Posterity will scarce believe that humane nature could be guilty of it in the open light And I know it to be so customary a thing for the Zealots professing the fear of God on one
side and the other to receive and rashly tell about lies of one another that I confess I am grown to take little heed of what such say in such a case unless the report continue a year uncontrolled For it 's common for them to tell those things as unquestionable which a few months prove false And yet never to manifest any repentance but to go on with the like one month disproving what the former hatcht and vended And indeed the very wisest and best of men are guilty of so much Ignorance Temerity Suspiciousness of others partiality c. That we must believe them though far sooner than others yet still with a reservâ—â—o change our minds if we find them mistaken 〈◊〉 still on supposition that they are fallible persons and that all men are Liars VII Another great cause of pretended false Knowledge and Confidence is the unhappy prejudices which our minds contract even in our Childhood before we have time and wit and Conscience to try things by true deliberation Children and Youth must receive much upon trust or else they can learn nothing But then they have not wit to proportion their apprehensions to the Evidence whether of Credibility or Certainty And so fame and tradition and education and the Countreys Vote do become the ordinary Parents of many Lies and folly maketh us to fasten so fearlesly in our fâ—rst apprehensions that they keep open the door to abundance of more falshoods And it must be clear Teachers or great impartial studies of a self-denying mind with a great blessing of God that must deliver us from prejudice and undeceive us And therefore all the World seeth that almost all men are of the Religion of their Country or their Parents be it never so absurd Though with the Mahometans they believe the Nonsence of a very sot once reading a quarter of whose Alcoran one would think should cure a man of Common reason of any inclination to his belief And among the Japonians even the eloquent Bonzii believe in Amida and Xaca To mention the belief of the Chinenses the People of Pegu Siam and many other such yea the Americans the Brasilians Lappians c. that correspond with Devils would be a sad instance of the unhappiness of mens first apprehensions and education And what doth the foresaid instance of Popery come short herein which tells us how Prejudice and Education and Company can make men deny all mens common sence and believe common unseen Miracles pretended in the stead VIII Another cause is the mistaking of the nature of the duty of submitting our judgment to our Superiours and Teachers especially to the Multitude or the Church or Antiquity No doubt but much reverence and a humane belief is due to the Judgment of our Teachers credibly made known But this is another thing quite different 1. From knowing by Evidence 2. And from believing God of which before and after IX Another cause is base slothfulness which makes men take up with the judgment of those in most reputation for Power Wisdom or Number to save them the labour of searching after the scientifical Evidence of things or the certain Evidence of Divine Revelations X. Another frequent cause is an appearance of something in the Truth which frighteneth men from it either for want of a clear methodical advantageous representation or by some difficult objection or some miscarriage in the utterance carriage or life of them that seem most zealous for it such little things deceive dark man And when he is turned from the Truth he thinks that the contrary Errour may be embraced without fear XI Another great cause of Confidence in false Conceits is the byass of some personal Interest prevailing with a corrupted Will and the mixture of Sense and Passion in the Judgment For as interested men hardly believe what seemeth against them and easily believe that which they would have to be true so Sense and Passion or Affections usually so bear down Reason that they think it their right to possess the Throne Not but that Sense is the only discerner of its own sensible Object as such and Reason by Sense as it is intelligible But that 's not the matter in hand But the Sensualist forceth his Reason to call that Best for him which his Sense is most delighted with and that Worst which most offendeth Sense The Drunkard will easily judge that his drinking is good for him and the Glutton that his pleasant meats are lawful and the Time-waster that his Plays are lawful and the Fornicator the wrathful revenger c. that their lusts and passions are lawful because they think that they have Feeling on their side It 's hard to carry an upright Judgment against Sense and Passion XII Sometimes a strong deluded Imagination maketh men exceeding confident in Errour some by Melancholy and some by a natural weakness of Reason and strength of Phantasie and some by misapprehensions in Religion grow to think that every strong conceit which doth but come in suddenly at reading or hearing or thinking on such a Text or in time of earnest prayer especially if it deeply affect themselves is certainly some suggestion or inspiration of God's Spirit And hence many Errours have troubled poor Souls and the Church of God which afterward they have themselves retracted Hence are the confidence of some ignorant Christians in expounding difficult Scriptures Prophecies and the boldness of others in expounding dark Providences and also in foretelling by their own surmises things to come XIII And not a few run into this mischief in some extreams by seeing others run into Errour on the other side Some are so offended at the credulity of the weak that they will grow confident against plain certainties themselves As because there are many feigned Miracles Apparitions Possessions and Witchcrafts in the World divulged by the Credulity of the injudicious therefore they will more foolishly be confident that there are no such things at all And because they see some weak persons impute more of their opinions performances and affections to God's Spirit than they ought therefore they grow mad against the true operations of the Spirit and confident that there is no such thing Some deride Praying by the Spirit and Preaching by the Spirit and Living by the Spirit when as they may as well deride understanding willing working by a Reasonable Soul no holy thing being holily done without God's Spirit any more than any act of life and reason without the Soul And they may on the same grounds deride all that Live not after the flesh and that are Christians Rom. 8.5 6 7 8 9 13. or that Love God or that seek Salvation Yea some run so far from spiritual Fanaticisms that they deny the very Being of Spirits and many confidently set up a dead Image of true Religion in bitter hatred and opposition of all that hath Life and serious Holiness So mad are some made by seeing some feverish persons dote XIV Another Cause
Brother odious as a Schismatick and a Fanatick and worse than words can describe him and another to reproach others as Antichristian and Carnal whom he never understood Nothing but Pride could make men so ready and bold and fearless in their most foolish censures 13. And it further sheweth their proud presumption when they dare do all this upon bare rumors and hear-say and ungrounded suspicions Were they not proud and presumptuous they would think Alas my understanding is not so clear and sure nor my Charity so safe and strong as that I should in reason venture to condemn my Brother upon uncertain rumors and so slight reports Have I heard him speak for himself Or is it Charity or common Justice to condemn a man unheard What though they are godly men that report it So was David that committed Adultery and Murder and hastily received a Lie against Mephibosheth and perhaps many of those Corinthians against whose false censures Paul was put so largely to vindicate himself 14. Yea when they dare proceed to vend these false reports and censures upon hear-say to the destruction of the Charity of those that hear them And so entangle them all in sin As if it were not enough to quench their own Love to their Brother by false Surmises but they must quench as many others also as they can 15. Yea when they dare venture so far as to unchurch many Churches yea most in the World and degrade most Ministers if not unchristen most Christians or at least themselves withdraw from the Communion of such Churches and all for something which they never understood about a Doctrine a Form a Circumstance where self-opinion or self-interest draweth them to all this bold adventure To say nothing of Condemnations of whole Churches and Countreys the tyrannical proud Impositions the cruel Persecutions which the Papal Faction hath been guilty of by this Vice judge now whether it be not too common a case to be guilty of an unhumbled understanding and of pretended knowledge Obj. If it be so is it not best do as the Papists and keep men from reading the Scriptures or medling with divine things which they cannot master any further than to believe what the Church believeth Ans 1. It is best no doubt to teach men to know the difference between Teachers and Learners and to keep in a humble learning state and in that state to grow as much in knowledge as they can But not to cast away knowledge for fear of over-valuing it nor renounce their reason for fear of errour No more than to put out their Eyes for fear of mistaking by them or chusing madness lest they abuse their wits Else we might wish to be Brutes because abused Reason is the cause of all the errours and mischiefs in the World. 2. The Popish Clergy who give this counsel for the blinding of the vulgar are worse themselves and by their proud Contendings Censures and Cruelties shew more self-conceitedness than the vulgar do 3. The truth is the cause is the common frailty of man and the common pravity of corrupted nature and it is to be found in Persons of all Ranks Religions and Conditions of which more after in due place Chap. 12. Of the mischievous effects of this proud pretence of more knowledge than men have IF the mischiefs of this sin had not been very great I had not chosen this subject to treat of 1. It is no small mischief to involve mens Souls in the guilt of all the sins which I named in the last Chapter as the discovery of this Vice. Sure all those disorders censures slanders and presumptions should not seem small in the Eyes of any man that feareth God and loveth holiness and hateth sin 2. Pretended knowledge wasteth men some time in getting it and much more in abusing it All the time that you study for it preach for it talk for it write for it is sinfully lost and cast away 3. It kindleth a corrupt and sinful Zeal such as James describeth Jam. 3.1 15. which is envious and striving and is but Earthly Sensual and Devilish A Zeal against Love and against good Works and against the Interest of our Brother and against the Peace and Concord of the Church a hurting burning devouring excommunicating persecuting Zeal And a Feaver in the Body is not so pernicious as such a sinful Zeal in the Soul. Such a Zeal the Jews had as Paul bears them witness Rom. 11.1 Such a Zeal alas is so common among persecuting Papists on one side and censorious Sectaries and Separatists on the other that we must all bear the sad effects of it And self-conceited knowledge is the fuel of this Zeal as James 3. fully manifesteth 4. This pretended knowledge is the fixing of false Opinions in the minds of men by which the truth is most powerfully kept out A Child will not wrangle against his Teacher and therefore will learn but these over-wise Fools do presently set their wits against what you say to keep out knowledge You must beat down the Garrison of his pride before you come within hearing to instruct him He is hardlier untaught the errours which he hath received than an unprejudiced man is taught to understand most excellent truths 5. By this the gifts of the most wise and excellent Teachers are half lost It is full Bottles that are cast into these Seas of knowledge which have no room for more but come out as they went in If an Augustine or an Aquinas or Scotus were among them yea a Peter or Paul what can he put into these Persons that are full of their own conceits already Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit there is more hope of a Fool than of him 6. Yea they are usually the perverters of the Souls of others Before they can come to themselves and know that they were mistaken what pains have they taken to make others of their own erroneous minds whom they are not able afterward to undeceive again 7. It is a vice that blemisheth many excellent qualifications To hear of a man that valueth his own Judgment but according to its worth and pretendeth to know but so much as he knoweth indeed is no shame to him though knowledge is a thing fitter to be Used than Boasted of But if a man know never so much and can never so well express it if he think that he is wiser than he is and excelleth others more than indeed he doth and over-valueth that knowledge which he hath it is a shame which his greatest parts cannot excuse or hide 8. It exposeth a man to base and shameful mutability He that will be hasty and confident in his apprehensions is so oft mistaken that he must as oft change his mind and recant or do much worse I know that it cannot be expected that any man should have as sound apprehensions in his youth as in his age and that the wisest should not have need of mutations for the better and
at the first hearing Take it for granted that your first conceptions of things must alter either as to the Truth or the Evidence or the Order or the Degree Few men are so happy in youth as to receive at first such right impressions which need not after to be much altered When we are Children we know as Children but when we become Men childish things are done away Where we change not our Judgment of the matter yet we come to have very different apprehensions of it I would not have Boys to be meer Scepticks for they must be Godly and Christians But I would have them leave room for increase of knowledge and not be too peremptory with their juvenile conceptions but suppose that a further light will give them another prospect of the same things D. X. Chuse such Teachers if possible as have themselves attained the things you seek even that most substantial Wisdom which leadeth to Salvation For how else shall they teach others what they have not learnt themselves O the difference between Teachers and Teachers between a rash flashy unexperienced proud wit and clear headed well studied much experienced and godly man Happy is he that hath such a Teacher that is long exercised in the ways of Truth and Holiness and Peace and hath a heart to value him D. XI Value Truth for Goodness and Goodness above Truth and estimate all Truths and Knowledge by their usefulness to higher Ends. That is Good as a Means which doth Good. There is nothing besides God that is simply Good in of and for it self all else is only Good derivatively from God the Efficient and as a Means to God the final Cause As a pound of Gold more enricheth than many loads of Dirt so a little Knowledge of great and necessary matters maketh one wiser than a great deal of pedantick toyish Learning No man hath time and capacity for all things He is but a proud fool that would seem to know all and deny his ignorance in many things Even he that with Alstedius c. can write an Encyclopaedia is still unacquainted with abundance that is intelligible For my own part I humbly thank God that by placing my dwelling still as in the Church-yard he hath led me to chuse still the studies which I thought were fittest for a man that is posting to another world He that must needs be ignorant of many things should chuse to omit those which he can best spare Distinguish well between studying and knowing for Use and for Lust For the True Ends of Knowledge and for the bare delight of Knowing One thing is necessary Luke 10.42 And all others but as they are necessary to that one Mortifie the Lust of useless Knowledge as well as other lusts of flesh and fantasie Dying men commonly call it Vanity Remember what a deal of precious Time it wasteth and from how many greater and more necessary things it doth divert the mind and with what wind it puffs men up as is aforesaid How justly did the rude Tartarians think the great Libraries and multitudes of Doctors and idle Priests among the Chinenses to be a foolery and call them away from their Books to Arms as Palafox tells us when all their Learning was to so little purpose as it was and led them to no more high and necessary things D. XII Yet because many smaller parts of Knowledge are necessary to Kingdoms Academies and Churches which are not necessary nor greatly valuable to individual persons let some few particular persons be bred up to an eminency in those studies and let not the generality of Students waste their time therein There is scarce any part of Knowledge so small and useless but it is necessary to great Societies that some be Masters of it which yet the generality may well spare And all are to be valued and honoured according to their several excellencies But yet I cannot have while to study as long as Politian how Virgil should be spelt nor to decide the quarrels between Phil. Pareus and Gruter nor to digest all his Grammatical Collections nor to read all over abundance of Books which I allow house room to Nor to learn all the Languages and Arts which I could wish to know if I could know them without neglecting greater things But yet the excellent Professors of them all I honour D. XIII Above all Value Digest and seriously Live upon the most Great and Necessary Certain Truths O that we knew what Work inward and outward the great Truths of Salvation call for from us all If you do not faithfully value and improve these you prepare for delusion You forget your Premises and Principles God may justly leave you in the dark and give you up to believe a lie Did you live according to the importance of your certain Principles your lives would be filled with fruit and business and delight and all this Great So that you would have little mind or leisure for little and unnecessary things It is the neglect of things necessary which fills the World with the trouble of things unnecessary D. XIV Study hard and search diligently and deeply and that with unwearied patience and delight Unpleasant studies tire and seldom prosper Slight running thoughts accomplish little If any man think that the Spirit is given to save us the labour of hard and long studies Solomon hath spent so many Chapters in calling them to dig search cry labour wait for Wisdom that if that will not undeceive them I cannot They may as well say that God's blessing is to save the Husbandman the labour of plowing and sowing And that the Spirit is given to save men the labour of learning to read the Bible or to hear it or think of it or to pray to God. Whereas the Spirit is given us to provoke and enable us to study hard and read and hear and pray hard and to prosper us herein And as vain are our idle Lads that think that their natural Wits or their Abode and Degrees in the Universities will serve the turn instead of hard studies And so they come out almost as ignorant and yet more proud than they went thither to be Plagues in all Countreys where they come to teach others by example the idleness and sensuality which they learnt themselves and being ignorant yet the honour of their Functions must be maintained and therefore their ignorance must be hid which yet themselves do weekly make ostentation of in the Pulpit where they should be shining lights and when their own Tongues have proclaimed it those of understanding that observe and loath it must be maligned and railed at for knowing how little their Teachers know Nothing without long and hard studies furnisheth the mind with such a stock of truth as may be called real wisdom That God is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him and not of the lazy neglecters of him is the second Principle in Religion Heb. 11.6 They that cannot be at
of Children in general and their inception of a new life so in special he seemeth to respect them as Disciples set Children to School and their business is to hear and learn all day They set not their wits against their Masters and do not wrangle and strive against him and say It is not so we know better than you But so abominably is humane nature corrupted by this Intellectual Pride that when once Lads are big enough to be from under a Tutor commonly instead of Learning of others they are of a teaching humour and had rather speak two hours than hear one And set their wits to contradict what they should learn and to conquer those that would instruct them and to shew themselves wiser than to learn to be more wise and we can scarce talk with Man or Woman but is the wisest in the Company and hardliest convinced of an errour But two things here I earnestly advise you 1. That you spend more time in Learning than in Disputing Not but that disputing in its season is necessary to defend the Truth But usually it engageth mens wits in an eager opposition against others and so against the truth which they should receive And it goeth more according to the ability of the disputants than the merits of the cause And he that is worsted is so galled at the disgrace that he hateth the truth the more for his sake that hath dishonoured him and therefore Paul speaketh so oft against such disputing and saith that the Servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle and apt to teach and in meekness instruct opposers I would ordinarily if any Man have a mind to wrangle with me tell him If you know more of these things than I if you will be my Teacher I shall thankfully hear and learn and desire him to open his Judgment to me in its fullest evidence And I would weigh it as the time and case required And if I were fully satisfied against it I would crave leave to tell him the reasons of my dissent and crave his patient audience to the end And when we well understood each others mind and reasons I would crave leave then to end in peace unless the safety of others required a dispute to defend the Truth 2. And my specially repeated counsel is that you suspend your judgment till you have cogent evidence to determine it Be no further of either side than you know they are in the right cast not your self into other mens opinions hastily upon slight reasons at a blind adventure If you see not a Certainty judge it not Certain If you see but a Probability judge it but Probable Prove all things and hold fast that which is good The Bereans are commended for searching the Scripture and seeing whether the things were so which Paul had spoken Truth feareth not the light It is like Gold that loseth nothing by the fire Darkness is its greatest Enemy and Dishonour Therefore look before you leap you are bid Believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God. Stand still till you know that the ground is safe which you are to tread on When Poysoners are as Common as Physicians you will take heed what you take It 's safer when once you have the essentials of Christianity to take too little than too much For you are sure to be saved if you are meer true Christians but how far Popery Antinomianism c. may corrupt your Christianity is a controversie Wish them that urge you to forbear their haste in a matter of everlasting consequence These are not matters to be rashly done And as long as you are uncertain profess your selves uncertain and if they will condemn you for your ignorance when you are willing to know the truth so will not God. But when you are certain resolve in the strength of God and hold fast whatever it cost you even to the death and never fear being losers by God by his Truth or by Fidelity in your Duty PART II. Of true saving Knowledge I. Causing our Love to God. II. Thereby Qualifying us for his Love. 1 Cor. 8.3 But if any man Love God the same is known of him Chap. I. Knowledge is to be estimated more by the end it tendeth to than by it self HAving done with that Epidemical mortal disease SELF-CONCEITEDNESS or PREFIDENCE or overhasty judging and Pretending to know that which we know not which I more desire than hope to cure I have left but a little room for the nobler part of my Subject True saving Knowledge because the handling of it was not my principal design The meaning of the Text I gave you before The true Paraphrase of it is as followeth As if Paul had said You overvalue your barren notions and think that by them you are wise whereas Knowledge is a means to a higher end is to be esteemed of as it attaineth that end And that end is to make us Lovers of God that so we may be known with Love by him For to Love God and be beloved by him is mans felicity and ultimate end and therefore that which we must seek after and live for in the world and he is to be accounted the wisest man that loveth God most when unsanctified Notions Speculations will prove but folly This being the true meaning of the Text I shall briefly speak of it by parts as it containeth these several Doctrines or Propositions Doct. 1. Knowledge is a means to a higher end according to which it is to be estimated Doct. 2. The End of Knowledge is to make us Lovers of God and so to be known with Love by him Doct. 3. Therefore knowledge is to be valued sought and used as it tendeth to this holy blessed end Doct. 4. And therefore those are to be accounted the wisest or best-knowing men that Love God most and not those that are stored with unholy knowledge For the first of these that Knowledge is a means to a higher end I shall first open it and then prove it I. Aquinas and some other Schoolmen make the Vision or Knowledge of God to be the highest part of mans Felicity And I deny not but that the three faculties of mans Soul Vital Activity Intellect and Will as the Image of the Divine Trinity have a kind of inseparability and coequality And therefore each of their perfections and perfect Receptions from God and operations on God is the ultimate end of man But yet they are Distinguishable though not divisible and there is such an Order among them as that one may in some respects be called the Inceptor and another the Perfecter of humane operations and so the Acts of one be called a means to the Acts of the other And thus though the Vision or Knowledge of God be one inadequate conception if not a part of our ultimate end yet the Love of God and Living to God are also other conceptions or parts of it yea